Deadly Accident Leaves Questions

Alice Carter replayed the message her granddaughter left on her answering machine a week ago, when Jonika A. Travis called from Baltimore to say she was on her way home. "She sounded so sweet," Carter said, her voice strained by grief.

It was the last time she heard from the 24-year-old.

About 10 p.m. Sunday, Travis was crossing the southbound lanes of Jefferson Avenue near Morris Drive when she may have stepped into the path of two or three sport utility vehicles or pickup trucks, Newport News police said.

All of the vehicles continued southbound without stopping, said Lou Thurston, police spokesman. "Although there was traffic in the area, no one stopped."

Carter's brother called her about 11 p.m. Sunday to say that "something terrible happened to Jonika."

Carter, who lives less than a mile away, ran to the accident scene.

"I could see my baby laying in the street. Nobody deserves that. No one," she said angrily. "The people who hit her, they could have at least stopped."

An employee at a nearby Wilco Food Mart said he saw Travis' body catapulted into the air.

Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.

Police said none of the witnesses were able to give a detailed description of the vehicles. "Not only do we not know the color or make of the vehicles, we don't know if it was two or three vehicles that were involved," said Officer Holly Hileman.

Carter said she began raising Travis when her granddaughter was 6 years old. She also had legal custody of Travis' brother and younger sister.

Travis had been seen at the Wilco Food Mart with two men moments before the accident, a Wilco employee said. "She was a regular customer. She'd usually get something to eat, like a snack or one of our dollar sandwiches," said Wilco employee Lula Perry.

At one time, Perry thought Travis lived with a boyfriend at the Thr-Rift Inn Motel, across the street from Wilco, but motel employees could not confirm that Travis was a registered guest.

Police said they would like to identify and interview a man who was seen talking with Travis just before the accident. They also said that anyone with information about the vehicles or drivers involved in the hit and run should call the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP (1-888-562-5887). *